Cupcakes & Crushes (DISCONTINUED)

Wednesday, February 3rd

When Dinah reached Normani's locker on Wednesday morning, her friend was already wolfing down the cupcake she had received. Dinah raised her eyebrow at the girl.

"Before you judge me, I was denied the pleasure of actually eating one of these things both yesterday and Monday. I'm eating this before anyone can stop me," Normani quickly told Dinah.

Dinah rolled her eyes. "Ok, Mani. You do you." She cocked her head in thought. "Was there a letter on it today?"

Normani's eyes widened in realization as she finished off the last bite. "Oh. I forgot to check."

Dinah laughed. "Wow. You really were eager to eat that cupcake."

The older girl just shrugged and smiled innocently. The two girls continued to chat until it was time to part ways and head to their first period classes. Normani entered the classroom to find Lauren already there.

"Good morning Normani," Lauren greeted her as she sat down.

"Please just call me Mani," she replied. "My full name just sounds too formal coming out of my friends' mouths."

Lauren grinned. "Oh? So we've moved from 'classmates who sit next to each other' to actual friends?"

Normani paused in thought. "Well, yeah. I would say so." Even though the two girls had only really begun to interact yesterday, and they weren't even close to being good friends, Normani desperately wanted to get to know Lauren. Also, the thought of being her friend gave her just a slight case of the butterflies.

Before Lauren could respond, the bell rang, silencing everyone in the room.

At the end of class, Normani and Lauren walked out into the hallway together, but before they could separate, Lauren grabbed Normani's arm. "Hey, Mani."

Normani's heart rate picked up considerably when the nickname "Mani" came out of Lauren's mouth. "Yeah?"

"Do you and Dinah want to come sit at my table during lunch today? Since we're friends now?" She smirked slightly.

"Sure! Who else do you sit with?" Normani's heart was definitely racing now.

"Ally Brooke and Camila Cabello."

Normani fake-frowned. "Oh, sorry, there's no way I could eat lunch with those two."

Lauren's face fell. "Really?"

Normani laughed and nudged the other girl's shoulder. "Lighten up, I'm just kidding. I would love to join you and your friends at lunch today."

Lauren smiled. "Alright then, Mani, I'll see you later!"

As they parted, Normani couldn't help but think about how disappointed the girl had looked when she had pretended to deny her invite.

---

"We're sitting somewhere else today, Dinah," Normani instructed, pulling her friend by the arm.

"We are? We better be sitting by cute boys," she replied, scanning the cafeteria as she spoke.

"No. We're sitting by a hot girl."

Dinah whipped her head in her best friend's direction. "What? Who does Mani have a crush on now??"

Normani just smiled and waved at the green eyed girl who was trying to catch their attention. Dinah followed her gaze to see who Normani was looking at. When Dinah's eyes landed on Lauren Jauregui, she gasped.

"I knew it!" She squealed.

"Dinah, I need you to be chill today," Normani warned.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem," Dinah answered, nodding her head excitedly.

"Hi guys!" Lauren called out when they reached their table. "I'm glad you guys decided to join us."

"Of course! After all, you almost cried when I said I didn't want to," Normani teased.

Lauren blushed while everyone laughed at her. "Um, well, this is Camila," she motioned to a brunette girl, "and this is Ally." She patted the head of the small girl on the other side of her.

"Nice to meet y'all!" Ally exclaimed, while Camila waved and smiled. "Dinah and Normani, right?"

"Yup!" Dinah answered enthusiastically, taking a seat next to Camila. Normani took the open seat in between Dinah and Lauren.

The rest of the lunch period contained many laughs and different conversations, and Normani left feeling two main emotions: happiness knowing that she was starting to gain three new friends, and nervousness knowing that her feelings for Lauren were increasing rapidly.